Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Farmers Market, John the Baker, Jeff the Musician

The Civic Center Farmers' Market, which is held on Wednesdays and Sundays, was very lively at lunch hour today.

It was filled with nearby office workers (the state, city and federal governments all have their headquarters around here) along with the usual neighbors.

I bought some grapes (which are Good For You!)...

...peaches...

...and nectarines.

I'm not a big egg or dairy fan, but I loved the egg display even though the Egg Lady ran and hid rather than have her picture taken.

The most popular place, at least during lunch hour, was this tamale stand.

There was a line that went all the way past the fishmongers.

At the very end, almost on Market Street, there was a lone fellow selling different kinds of bread.

He was also selling fruit tarts, all of it homemade by him in his house in Twin Peaks.

I don't have much of a sweet tooth so I didn't go for any of the tarts, but I did buy a loaf of sourdough bread.

This is John the Baker. His loaf of bread was good enough that I ate half of it before I made it home. Check him out next time you're at the market.

On the way home, I went by Bill Graham auditorium again where the "Digital Divide" event was still taking place.

I thought there would be something going on inside but the hall and the lobby was empty.

The three days of "Digital Divide" were all on the sidewalk in front of the hall.

It was an opportunity for city government offices to get rid of their crap, mostly.

I spoke to one of the workers who told me that all this stuff was going to the Goodwill on Mission Street where it would be refurbished and sold cheaply or distributed through nonprofits.

"And the stuff that doesn't work is going to be recycled, safely."

"There IS no way to recycle this stuff safely," a guy standing next to me said.

We were both eyeing the boxes with the Apple Powerbooks, wondering if they wanted to give them to us since we were both poor, though I doubt if we could be called part of the Digital Divide.

I started asking my companion, whose name was Jeff, impertinent questions like where he lived (he had just moved back to San Francisco from Los Angeles after living here from 1987 to 1997), where he was staying (on friends' couches for the time being), and whether he had any skills. "What do you mean?" he asked me. "Well, to get a job, and they really haven't existed in San Francisco since everything, including the tourism industry, crashed, what skills would you have?" He looked amused and not at all offended.

That's when he told me had been a rock musician in a band for the last ten years as a singer/guitarist and songwriter. "And you made your living doing that?" I asked him and he said yes. "Congratulations," I told him, "making your living in the arts is a tricky business," which he acknowledged. Anyway, he quit the band recently and is making a new life up here. I told him I'd take him to my favorite hangout, the opera house, which he'd never visited all the time he lived here and which I look upon as my personal clubhouse. And if you happen to see this, Jeff, I'm quite serious about the invite. The season starts in September and the John Adams opera, "Doctor Atomic," starts in October.